Tag Archives: Ridley Scott

It was a phone call from Ridley Scott. I’d worked with him before. He’d called my agent and said, “Idris, can I get on the phone with you?” And I said yes, of course, and we spoke about it very quickly. And he said, “I’d love you to do it,” and that was it.

On Ridley Scott as a director:

He has a flair for making the unrealistic seem realistic. He’s kind of like a painter. If he’s painting a lake, he’s gonna spend time adding the layers to make the water look like it’s shimmering. What he does actually is tell you exactly how he’s going to edit you into the film. So you get a sense of where your role [is], how it should work, what kind of dynamic it wants.

On the connection between Prometheus and alien:

Actually, I think there’s a tendency to lean away from the prequel scenario, because this film is epic on its own. As the title “Prometheus” suggests, it has a history that is slightly disconnected from just aliens and spaceships, so to speak. I think what’s exciting is that we know the director made “Alien”—and he’s making this.

She lost her father when she was quite young. He was a missionary and he was Christian. I think if something dramatic happens at an early age, it’s like you have two options. You can lose faith and you can go quite dark and you can start to think that everything is a punishment in a way. The other way, because she was a loved kid and he gave her the gift of belief and faith, then you can hold onto that and believe that there’s a purpose for everything. At the end of the day, it’s all about what I choose to believe and who I am, and what I make out of things instead of seeing myself as a victim.

On how Shaw differs from Ripley from Alien (I predict the boyfriend Holloway will die in the middle of the movie, and that’s the “something happens” she’s talking about):

I think Shaw is more feminine, in a way. She’s a scientist. She’s an archeologist. Ripley was harder from the start: from the beginning she was alone. Shaw starts this journey to get together with Holloway, and she loves him. They’re a team, they’re doing this together. In the middle of the movie, something happens and she becomes harder and more like a warrior. She has to cut off some emotional things to be able to survive.

On working with the casts of Prometheus:

The mix of people Ridley has found for this, I’m so happy and it’s pure joy to work with those people because there are so many amazing actors. Kate Dickie’s incredible. I just saw her in Red Road. Ridley talked about her; I’d never seen her. She’s the medic person on board and it’s a small part in the script, but as soon as we start to work and every scene comes to life, I think this group of people bring it to life together. I don’t really see myself as the lead at all. I think it’s very much what we all create together. Idris Elba is fantastic and so is Michael Fassbender. I’m really lucky. I think every scene, we are together finding the truth about the scene, so it’s very much teamwork. “What’s the best way to do this?” And, “maybe you and me should switch lines.” We all share some kind of vision in where we want to go. Ridley is the perfect leader because he gives everybody something and then when we bring it together. It’s like explosions.